


Legend

by TheLittleMuse



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Mentions Rey - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22084207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLittleMuse/pseuds/TheLittleMuse
Summary: To the Galaxy, Luke Skywalker is a legend, a name to invoke hope or fear, a figure that is more myth than man, a collection of impossible stories.To himself, Luke is none of those things. He is a farm boy who dreamt to large and failed everyone he cared about.A look at Luke's time on Ahch-To.
Kudos: 3





	Legend

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this when it hit me that everyone in TLJ - even Snoke - believes 100% that if Luke just comes back it'll be over for the First Order. And Luke, who has been broken by his mistakes, can't deal with that.

Luke Skywalker was a farm boy.

That’s what they didn’t understand about him. In his heart he’s still a farm boy gaping at the stars.

They saw the legend. The stories. The battles. The Death Star (twice). The Emperor. Vader. They didn’t see the battles he’d lost, the friends he couldn’t save.

Even Ben who’d known him at his most foolish had seemed to believe in his legend. How could he not? When Obi-Wan Kenobi’s life had fallen apart he’d build a new life around Luke _._ And so, Luke had set out plans for his school, for a new Jedi Order.

Perhaps they had dreamed too high, but nothing had seemed impossible then. They had just brought down the Empire and they were going to rebuild the galaxy. They were going to rebuild the Republic and rebuild the Jedi.

They were legends and then the universe found out that their legends were just pictures painted on glass.

Ahch-To was a peaceful place to retire. Everything was in perfect balance.

Luke always woke to burning. He felt the flames flicking on his skin, his lungs filled with smoke. He lay in a bed of ash and blood.

It was just a dream

Except it wasn’t.

Everyone was dead, all his precious students, his dream. Except that wasn’t quite true. Ben lived, as much as _Kylo Ren_ declared that Ben Solo was dead. Perhaps if Luke had stopped trying to be the legendary Luke Skywalker and had been a better teacher, a better Uncle, he could have stopped it. Or if he had been a better Jedi he could have seen what Snoke was doing and stopped it.

Either way, he was a failure.

And now there’s Rey. Another desert child, full of terrified hope and wonder at this universe that’s much too large and yet not large enough to contain her. Eyes always on the horizon and _not on what she is doing_.

He looked at her and saw her world burning, just as his had and just as the First Republic had. He looked at her and saw ash and blood.

He wanted to hold her, wanted to tell her to stop before the war destroyed her too. But she looked at him and hoped, that persistent, unrelenting, wide-eyed _hope_ that he recognised from so long ago.

And so, he turned away.

But she had awoken something in him. Her and Artoo and Chewbacca and

 _Han_.

He hadn’t even felt his old friend’s death.

 _We don’t stop fighting because we lose those we love,_ Leia had once said, _we carry on for those we still have._ And Leia would know that more than most.

 _I failed,_ he told his imaginary Leia, because after years on the island he was very adept at having conversations with himself.

 _I know,_ said imaginary Leia, _so did I. So did we all_.

 _The Jedi failed,_ he said.

_I know. But this isn’t about the Jedi. This is about you. You can’t actually take responsibility for everything, you know._

He breathed, and for the first time in a long time it didn’t feel as if he were breathing smoke. His imaginary Leia wasn’t usually so kind.

Somewhere he heard Yoda laughing.

He smiled; Leia had never thought of him as a legend. She had always been too busy dealing with his ridiculousness.

But she was a leader of a rebellion built on hope, and she knew the value of legends. She had used the legend of Luke Skywalker just as much as anyone else. He had let her, because it was needed. But he had never been good at playing the Wise Jedi Leader and their fledgling Republic was filled with so much hurt that he couldn’t fix.

He failed there too.

But perhaps he could be the Legendary Luke Skywalker, Jedi Warrior once more. He could give the Resistance hope and time.

Apologise to Leia. Give Rey … something. The satisfaction of knowing she’d won this old man over, perhaps.

Be at peace.


End file.
